Private Providers

With a focus on the education sector, we’re able to tailor our service offering to fit your needs
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Our team of education experts understands your requirements and the legal framework

As part of our focus on the education sector, we have a dedicated Private Providers team with a full-service offering to independent providers of higher and further education.

Our team is able to draw upon our education expertise while understanding the particular challenges faced by the independent tertiary education sector, providing advice that meet the sector’s needs from adapting to student requirements and courses demand to partnering with traditional universities and consolidating mergers with other institutions.

We have extensive experience working with private education providers on a broad range of matters

Our specialist experience includes

  • Carrying out a comprehensive review of all student facing documents, including policies and procedures, to ensure they comply with law, regulation, and good practice. We also delivered training to staff on student contracts so they understood how to navigate the relationship from a legal perspective.

  • Advising on the development of a scholarship scheme for EU students to mitigate the reduction in student numbers as a result of Brexit, and ensure competitive advantage was maintained.

  • Carrying out an effectiveness review which had been required by the OfS to secure an external review of its compliance with the management and governance conditions, including the public interest governance conditions. This required us to consider these conditions in detail and to consider how the provider’s governance arrangements needed to be modified to respond to these requirements.

  • Supporting with the application to register with the OfS. This included reviewing self-assessment templates for consumer protection, management and governance, as well as their student protection plan, refund and compensation policy.

  • Helping a new provider which was a company develop a governance structure suitable for its specialist offering and its aspirations to become a university. This involved particular focus on academic governance and a way to democratise governance by giving a specific (and carefully defined) governance role to a staff and student advisory board, as well as developing appropriate schemes of delegation and terms of reference.

How can we help?

Our expert lawyers are ready to help you with a wide range of legal services, use the search below or call us on: 0330 024 0333